E3 2021 Predictions & Wishes

GOTG looks really solid - one of the few things that made me sit up and say, "I want to play that". It's by the people who made Tomb Raider, right?

There seems to be a lot of positive reaction to Microsoft's show, but I was a little disappointed. They gave a lot of space for Stalker 2, but it didn't seem all that special to me. Atomic Heart looked way more interesting. Horizon looked amazing, but also more of the same. I'm looking forward to Psychonauts and Halo, but those are pretty much priced in already. I did think Psychonauts was looking pretty solid, but Halo didn't really show anything new over last year's reveal. Most of the rest of it seemed to be multiplayer co-op shooters - and I have zero interest in those. That vampire thing they choose for the final reveal looked utterly derivative, and I really wanted to be interested in Arkane Austin's game. They made Prey, didn't they?

We didn't see much about Starfield other than a statement about its aesthetics. But, those aesthetics really worked for me.

Twitter says the Final Fantasy demo is up. But also the data is corrupted when you try to play. Not sure if they will reupload a fix or have to patch or what?

Seems like a mess for a time limited demo to not work the first day

Psychonaughts looked fantastic. So glad Double Fine have the time and budget to fully realise that games whacky art style. Microsoft have gotten their act together, to put it mildly. Good to see.

I found the gameplay for Battlefield 2042 much more encouraging than the trailer. I can see myself getting the varied and chaotic fights I that make the seres so great.

That Xbox presentation made me excited to play games on an Xbox again.

Some trailers that called out to me during the PC Gaming show.

Also I have decided that Death Trash must be based on the "Creeping Rusty Meat" video from Strong Bad Email #141.

This looks pretty great. Brought back some feels

Dyni wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

Square Enix might have been the most disappointed I've been in an E3 presentation in a long time.

Yeah... it was rough. Babylon's Fall looked much worse than the trailer from last year, and learning that it's a live service game doesn't bode well.

Final Fantasy Origins was also a disappointing reveal for me. I don't expect incredible writing from these games, but every voiced line from that trailer was terrible. The combat didn't look particularly interesting either.

It looks like the PS5 demo goes up sometime today, so I'll at least give that a look.

I honest to gawd felt like this:

RIP SE

They seem creatively dead and a generation behind on tech now.

What's startling to me is that the recommended graphics card for the Beta is an RTX 3060, which is, uh, kind of not available and may even be more elusive than a PS5. The graphics, though? They aren't impressive enough to warrant a graphics card like that.

Or maybe I've been out of the PC game long enough to not get what "recommended" actually means, I dunno.

I decided to rewatch the 2019 State of Play trailer and then compare to the new trailer. I think the first trailer seems more exciting because what's happening is clear. You can see the attacks, you can see when the player dodges, you can see them launch a foe, pull themselves closer, and then slam to the ground. You see them dodging the boss' attacks. The new trailer is just... noise. It's visual noise, a complete mess, and it doesn't seem enemies are ever paying attention to the perspective character. What's more, that archer class looks boring. It could also be the camera, but the action and platforming just looks very slow.

I signed up for the Beta so I can test for myself first. Regardless, there's one giant collective deflation. I've never known a game go from being so hyped to so disappointing so fast. The like-to-dislike ratio on YouTube is a 17% on Square Enix's page for the trailer, and 42% on Sony's, where there's going to be far more sycophantic fans mashing that like button.

That's honestly pretty impressive.

If I were Square Enix, I'd try and get this on Game Pass PC or something very soon (not on Xbox so can't there) in order to just get people playing it. Because that "live-service" comment and the low quality of the trailer just lost them sales, I think.

That new Life Is Strange game looks great!

Unfortunately Capcom didn't have any announcements to make. Just trailers for games that we already knew were coming out like Great Ace Attorney or RE: VIII DLC. Disappointing, but understandable. Covid must have hit them hard.

cces told me not to expect Dragon's Dogma 2 info. Capcom said ahead of time what they would be showing and stuck to it.

That's fine. The poor company had all their cool secrets revealed when they were hacked. We know DD2 is coming, eventually.

Capcom was also hit with ransomware, don't forget. Because I forgot until like 5 minutes ago.

Djinn wrote:

Unfortunately Capcom didn't have any announcements to make. Just trailers for games that we already knew were coming out like Great Ace Attorney or RE: VIII DLC. Disappointing, but understandable. Covid must have hit them hard.

Yeah they didn't show RE Village DLC. They announced it, but all that footage was the base game.

In some ways it's not too surprising since Capcom doesn't really sit on an announcement for that long these days. I'd say less than a year on average. I just feel like that means they have nothing for the rest of 2021. What makes that a bit irritating to me personally was that I've wanted them to do their own conference for years, possibly over a decade, and now when they finally do, they got nothin'.

Ah well. Great Ace Attorney looks fun, though possibly one of the worst games to have a several minute demonstration of gameplay on, and I like the fact that I can keep my save data from the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo.

Tomorrow is Nintendo. I'm keeping expectations in check. On one hand, Square Enix prepared me not to expect anything for Capcom or Nintendo. On the other, after that Square Enix showing, I really could have used a nice surprise from Capcom.

Time to rewatch that Elden Ring trailer again...

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/615268099024879642/854254867643760650/Sorry-bruh.jpg)

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(Note that I don't think E3 needs "saving" but I can understand the sentiment after Squenix and Capcom)

sh*t, I thought Nintendo was opening with dead Ganon for BotW2, but no it's just another SSB DLC.

Stele wrote:

sh*t, I thought Nintendo was opening with dead Ganon for BotW2, but no it's just another SSB DLC.

Yeah, that got me good.

Me too.

Glad Smash is out of the way

Hey GtoG but portable.

I actually pumped my fist when they gave the next Metroid game the title Dread. I swear that was the codename that’s been floating around out there since Fusion came out. And it comes out in October!

Metroid side scrolling OMG omg OMG!

SMT 5?

The SMT announcer is trying way to hard.

Whew I was so glad they didn't let Danganronpa die as a franchise.....wtf is Danganronpa? Does anyone care?

Fatal Frame is nice. I won't get it because I would throw my Switch when I got scared but it is nice.

Remake the original Advance Wars but make it look worse (don't like the 3d models) seems like a waste of programer time

More Hyrule warriors. Fine I guess.

Feels like a lot or remakes, expansions, remasters rather than more new stuff. Including a game & watch system...

BOTW 2 has enough footage for the internet to disect to keep people busy. 2022 is not as soon as I would like but not unexpected. Of course he says "they hope to make that" so that means late 2022 - holiday season....that is a long time.

Oh and just like regular direct they are going to show some games available today as a surprise.

They're remaking the first two Advance Wars games. Pretty cool.

RIP Nintendo Switch Pro

Damn work getting in the way of watching E3 stuff all day

New 2D Metroid has been on my wish list forever. Though the N64 is still the newest Nintendo system I own, but I was hoping for a new version of the Switch so I could finally get one.

Too bad Game & Watch doesn't have LttP, but the hardware looks crazy good for nostalgists.

Advance Wars 1 & 2 3D looks sexy as hell. Highlight for me.

They got a little Skyward Sword in my BotW2.

Switch is really showing its age graphically.

Golf still looks good.

BotW2 of course looks amazing.

My biggest takeaway was Mario Party and new Rabbids.

The rest felt like rehashes that I have no interest in.

Back to playing my shiny Xbox, I guess.

Hopefully they can make all the aerial movement fun, since they're leaning hard into those islands in the sky.

Man, 2022 is going to be a solid year for the Switch. So far, we have Zelda, Splatoon 3, Rune Factor 5, Project Triangle Strategy, and Pokemon Legends Arceus.